Blog Entries tagged 'digital'

In the face of gloomy news about the state of publishing, I predict the book will have a huge resurgence. At the end of a day of tapping, or the beginning of a day with no tapping planned, there is nothing more comforting than to lie in bed with a lovely book. The feel of it in my hand is satisfying; the paper, the pool of yellow light on me and the paper, the turning of the page, my single-pointed absorption in another world.

We each come to literature in our own way. For some, the
gift is bestowed by a helpful governess who guides our fingers over the
letters in a primer. For others, a private tutor first enlightens us to
the majesty of the written word. How you arrive is immaterial. What is
important now is that you forget all that and learn to read anew. In my
literary criticism, I have become known as a champion of the eternal
verities and a scold of the trendy and the fashionable. I have essayed
to instruct your writers in how to write correctly. Now I will teach
you to read correctly.

When we see a word, we must ask ourselves foremost, What
does it mean? This is the first step in comprehension. When we have
accomplished this, we can proceed to the next, and so on. In due
course, we have read the sentence in toto. By returning to the
beginning of the sentence to perform a close reading, we unlock its
essence. I learned this skill at university. Although born in the
States, I journeyed abroad for my education and underwent my
intellectual coming of age at Oxford. I remember when the first
dispatches of Dirty Realism made their way across the Atlantic. I pored
over each latest issue of Granta as if it contained the Holy
Word. And perhaps it did. One of my favorites from that time has always
been Raymond Carver, in particular his affecting tale “Leave the Porch
Light On, It’ll Be Dark.”